This Day In Sports History (August 20th) — Usain Bolt

It was on this day in 2008 that Usain Bolt won the men’s 200 meter race at the Beijing Summer Olympics. Bolt set a new world record with his time of 19.30 seconds.

While Michal Phelps was dominating in the pool at the 2008 games, Bolt was doing the same on the track. He won the gold medal in the 100 meters, setting a new world record time of 9.69 seconds, which would have been even better had he not started celebrating before the race was over. Next up was the 200 meters, where current world record holder Michael Johnson felt that Bolt would win, but also felt that his world record time of 19.32 set at the 1996 Olympics would remain intact. Johnson was right about Bolt winning, but wrong about his record time being safe, as Bolt set a new world record of 19.30 seconds. Bolt would go on to win one more gold in the men’s 4 X100 meter relay, setting another world record time of 37.10 seconds.

Bolt would break his 200-meter record at the 2009 Berlin World Championships (with a time of 19.19), and he would add another three gold medals to his resume at the 2012 London Olympics, winning the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100 meter events.

Here is Bolt setting the current world record time of 9.58s in the 100 meters.